QUAKE AFTERMATH

‘Stupid’ Caller Trick: CNN anchor Bernard Shaw fell victim to a phone hoax during Monday’s earthquake coverage. The caller passed himself off to Shaw as a fire department spokesman, then gave an 800 number for quake information--which turned out to be an order line for a video of raunchy radio host Howard Stern. Shaw later apologized to viewers and called the hoax “not funny; in fact it’s stupid.”

* Plans Interrupted: Among the events canceled or postponed because of Monday’s 6.6 temblor was Tuesday’s “Crime in California: A Town Hall Meeting,” a KCAL-TV Channel 9 special that was to have featured Gov. Pete Wilson, L.A. County Sheriff Sherman Block and LAPD Chief Willie Williams before a live studio audience. The event will be rescheduled for February or March, a KCAL spokeswoman said. . . . Effects of the quake reached all the way to New York, where organizers canceled a press conference today that was to have kicked off the “Rhythm, Country & Blues” recording project featuring duets between top country and rhythm & blues artists. Planned participants included Lyle Lovett and Gladys Knight, both of whom elected to stay in Los Angeles following the quake.

LEGAL FILE

Custody Battle: In a court battle imported from Italy and waged against celebrated American artist Jeffrey Koons, porn star Ilona “Cicciolina” Staller has won a Jan. 26 custody hearing in New York and the right to see their 14-month-old son, Ludwig, in the meantime. Staller, also a former member of the Italian Parliament, is fighting Koons, her estranged husband, for the child, who has lived with Koons in New York since the artist took him from Staller’s home in Rome on Christmas Eve. Koons, who has filed for divorce, says he took Ludwig because Staller broke a promise not to make any more X-rated movies and because he found a sex toy among Ludwig’s playthings. Staller, who married Koons in 1991, denies the allegations. Staller was a member of the Italian Parliament from 1987 to 1992.

PEOPLE WATCH

Both ‘Fighters’ Go the Distance: It was Danny vs. Donny in a three-round charity boxing match to determine which former child star had grown into the more macho adult. The winner: Danny Bonaduce of “The Partridge Family” fame, who bloodied former singing teen idol Donny Osmond’s nose and earned a 2-1 decision in a charity bout held at Chicago’s China Club Monday night. Although the amount raised had not yet been tabulated, 80% of the proceeds will go to the Tom and Roseanne Arnold Foundation, Bonaduce’s chosen charity, while 20% will go to the Children’s Miracle Network, chosen by Osmond. The challenge began at the gym where both men were working out. Osmond is currently starring in Chicago in the title role of the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” while Bonaduce is a disc jockey for a Chicago radio station.

TELEVISION

Rewarded for Religion Coverage: ABC News and National Public Radio have received commendations from the Nashville-based Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University for making the coverage of religious news a priority. The non-partisan center cited ABC’s recent hiring of its first full-time religion reporter, Peggy Wehmeyer, and plans by National Public Radio to create a religion-programming production unit. The center’s chairman, John Seigenthaler, lauded the station for acting on the center’s widely circulated September report, which recommended “that the American media get serious about covering religious news and the impact religion has on the life of Americans.” Said Seigenthaler: “We are delighted that ABC and NPR have stepped up to the plate and hit what we perceive to be home runs. Our hope is that other television networks, radio networks and more newspapers will realize what a poor job is being done in covering this important area of American life.”

POP/ROCK

Country Song Nods: Songs by Alan Jackson and Vince Gill led the nominations for country song of the year Monday, with readers of Nashville’s Music City News selecting Jackson’s “Chattahoochee,” “She Got the Rhythm and I Got the Blues” and “Tonight I Climbed the Wall,” and Gill’s “Don’t Let Our Love Start Slippin’ Away,” “One More Last Chance” and “The Heart Won’t Lie” (a duet with Reba McEntire) as six of the year’s top 10 country songs. Other nominees were George Strait’s “I Cross My Heart” and “When Did You Stop Loving Me,” Tanya Tucker’s “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane” and Lorrie Morgan’s “What Part of No.” The top vote-getter will be announced March 9 during the 11th annual “Music City News Country Songwriters Awards,” which airs that night on cable’s Nashville Network.